I was interviewed by the radio presenter Hannah Murrayrecently, and we had such a laugh together, I almost forgot I was being recorded at the time. That could have proved catastrophic, but hopefully didn’t – though you can judge the outcome for yourselves when the interview is broadcast during tonight’s episode of The Book Show on Talk Radio Europe, also known as TRE.

My husband was quite worried about my tendency to say the first thing that comes into my head, until he heard the interview. Then he said he was REALLY impressed with me.

“Why?” I said. (You have to make the most of compliments when you’ve been married for thirty million years.)

“You didn’t swear at all,” he replied. There followed a brief pause, before he added: “Though you did say ‘half-arsed’ once.”

The Book Show begins at 6pm UK time, and you can listen online by clicking here. I’m the second guest on tonight’s show, so my interview starts about 20 minutes into the programme.

If you’re less easily offended than my husband is, but somehow managed to miss tonight’s broadcast anyway – maybe because you were too busy late-night shopping to listen to the radio – then there’s no need to despair. The show will be repeated on Saturday August 27th at 7-8pm UK time.

While I’m on the subject of local media support, I owe a big thank-you to Iceni magazine for including a full-page feature about “Would Like to Meet” in their June edition, as well as for finding the acknowledgments of the book so funny.

Iceni is a popular Norfolk lifestyle magazine, and you can read the feature about my book below, or access the online version by clicking here.

I’d like to thank the people of Swansea for their continued encouragement of this reluctantly ex-pat writer.

I was born in the city, and spent much of my childhood there, as well as studying for my first degree at Swansea University – but I’ve also lived in many other parts of the UK, because of my parents’ itchy feet.

As an adult, my place of residence remained unsettled until I married a man who was born in Norwich. Then it became very settled, because he hates moving, and that’s why we’ve been stuck here ever since. Even so, hardly a week goes by without my complaining that I’m desperate to go back home.

One of these days, the combination of the beauty of the Gower coastline and my constant moaning will finally pay off, and my husband will agree to join me in moving back to Dylan Thomas’s “ugly, lovely town”. (He already acknowledges that Dylan must have been as pissed as a fart when he chucked the word “ugly” into that description. Too pissed to spot the beautiful coastline, anyway.)

Where was I, before I started wittering on about Dylan Thomas’ drinking habits? Oh, yes – the encouragement I’ve been given by my home city and my country of birth.

Since my blog first started, I’ve had a loyal and hugely enthusiastic Welsh following, which led to my being interviewed on ITV Wales and to librarians in Swansea and Cardiff buying copies of my books in generous quantities, for which I’m very, very grateful. There’s something particularly magical about visualising people borrowing a copy of your book from a library in your home town, or your compatriots watching you on TV.

There’s also something very exciting about discovering that you’ve been mentioned in your home town’s local press, and that happened to me today when I noticed that “Would Like to Meet” had been mentioned in this month’s issue of The Bay magazine.

Unlike many of the free local papers and magazines in the UK, The Bay is a glossy magazine with high production values, and a focus on local culture. It’s usually such an interesting read that I always bring a copy back with me whenever my husband and I return from our yearly trip to Swansea, and I’m chuffed to bits that my book has been featured in it.

You can read the snippet about “Would Like to Meet” below, or the online version here.

(In case you’re wondering about the title of this post, diolch yn fawr means ‘thank you very much’.)

Obviously, there are more reviews coming on on Goodreads and Amazon all the time at the moment, so it’s hard to keep up, but here’s one from the book blog, “I Read Books”. You can access it by clicking here.